Troutarama and the NCT

Our Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA has a new position called Communications Coordinator, and one of the duties of that person is to work on outreach opportunities to tell more people about the trail. Taylor's first big effort was to get us in the Troutarama Parade in Baldwin. She is in the yellow shirt.

The parade was a decent length and a lot of people turn out for this. (It's a four-day event with all kinds of activities)

We handed out candy and flyers about the trail.

I've shown you this once before, but this is the statue commemorating that Baldwin was where brown trout were first released in the United States in 1884.

The statue now has a very nice garden with a couple of benches around it.

And coneflowers

The parade got me some walking, and then I had to go right past the trail on the way home, so I stopped and got in some more miles.

It was a little cooler and a little less smokey. There is a lovely breeze that made life tolerable. Still, not much else happened. I didn't sleep well last night and had trouble getting up this morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 219.1
Hike 100 Challenge: 80
Onekama Challenge: 31

In Baldwin for the parade and to get to my car- 2 miles. NCT, Lake County, MI, Timber Creek to Wingleton Rd and back 4 miles.

See The Rest of Yesterday

Spirit of the Woods Hike- July 2026

Today's hike was on a section of trail that, somehow, the group has not hiked recently. It's hilly but very pretty.

Here's the group- 19 in the picture, one more showed up. Several people we hadn't seen for a while, and one person who took her very first North Country Trail hike today!

This section is mostly on the bluff high above the Manistee River. There aren't many view spots in the summer with all the leaves. And it's too hazy for the far bluff to show in the picture, but it's over there in the bright spot.

Not much blooming as far as flowers. Some tick trefoil, but my picture isn't in focus.

Several nice puddles of northern maidenhair fern- always one of my favorites. Adiantum pedatum

Parasitic plants were represented. Here is indian pipe, Monotropa uniflora. A small patch, but always interesting to find.

We also saw bear corn, Conipholis americana, and I thought I took a picture, but it's not on the SD card, so who knows what happened. Sort of looks like cream-colored pinecones growing out of the ground.

We did see a beautiful patch of one of the Clavaria fungi. Basically a coral fungus. The names have changed like crazy. I used to call this one Crowned clavaria because the ends of the stalks are divided into little "crowns," and its name then was Clavaria coronata. It seems to have changed more than once, and is now Artomyces pyxidatus.

Most everyone walked 6 miles total, and a few did shorter distances as they were able. Five of us went farther and did 7 NCT miles plus the little bit extra to get to the cars.

Miles walked in 2026: 203.5
Hike 100 challenge 2026: 69.75

North Country Trail, Manistee County, from Coates Highway south 3.5 miles and back plus roadwalk to cars. 7.4 miles.

Not a lot else happened today. We started early and got most of the hike done before the air heated up. My temperature/humidity internal sensors started giving off warning signals about a mile before I finished, but it wasn't too bad.

Here's a news flash! Despite the fact that we live on a major highway, Google can not seem to understand where we live. I had tried 7 times to get them to change it, including sending a picture of my driveway and mailbox on request, but they basically said that I don't know where I live.

I tried again a few days ago. Try #8. I got notice that my correction has been accepted! Amazing! Now we'll find out if that is real.

Some of the proof of my claim that they wouldn't change it. And at the bottom, this week, it was accepted. This has irked me to no end, and has resulted in several lost packages, so I'll be very happy if it's fixed.

See Spirit of the Woods- June 2026

Only Took 20+ Years

This is a monumental day for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. Let me tell you why.

Approximately 20 years ago (I have to look up the exact year) our chapter started to prepare to put two register boxes out along our section of the trail. The chapter south of us has them. The chapter north of us has them. Chapters all along the entire 4800 miles of trail have them. But, until today, we did not.

I won't go into all the reasons why, but it all began with a political decision by someone higher up the food chain in the Forest Service who decided we couldn't do this. We've been negotiating ever since. Seriously, the volunteer who made the boxes has even died! Van, if you are watching, I hope you are happy to see your beautiful cedar boxes finally appear along the trail.

Pete and Bill are installing the box on the post. And Pete added the baffle to try to keep critters out (mice love to chew up the books and make nests).

This was actually the third thing we accomplished on this trail work day. The second part was getting the "Private Property" signs up on the section of the trail I talked about in the link below. The family officially has signed paperwork allowing the trail passage, and these great signs provided by the National Park Service hopefully help people to understand that they should stay on the trail and respect our privilege to pass through.

And before that... we spent a bit over 2 hours working with some Forest Service staff to remove invasive species. We are now approved to do so without their direct supervision. Dan is weilding our new and violent brush cutter. It can take out things almost up to 3" in diameter. Here, he's working on a Tatarian Honeysuckle.

We cut stuff and painted the cut stumps with herbicide. You've seen me doing a lot of this at my house.

There were 7 of us working for those two hours. Even so, it's slow going. One has to find all the trees and shrubs, big or small, cut them off really near the ground, treat the cut ends, move the branches off the trail. We tried to get everything within 10 feet of the trail. But walking back, we found even more that we missed. This is just one pile of cut brush.

I left home at 7 am, and got home just in time to shower and make it to a meeting in Ludington at 3 pm.

Nothing else happened today. This was plenty, and I'm going to go lie down very soon.

I tried to estimate the total walking and separate it from the walking on the actual NCT. We had to carry the posts and the digger a fair distance for the 2nd and 3rd projects. Dan left us after the second part and went off a different place to mow a section of trail. It takes a lot of work to keep a trail in nice shape.

Total miles walked 4.6, with 3.0 of them being NCT in various places.

Miles walked in 2026: 186.6
NCT Hike 100 Challenge: 63

See Slightly Out of Focus

Not On the Lake

We tried again. Still no boat ride. Haha.

Once again, Dan hosted the Spirit of the Woods board meeting at his cabin on Harper Lake with the promise of a boat ride afterwards. Last September, it got dark on us. Today, it rained all afternoon and evening. So we were not ON the lake.

So, although we were not on a boat on the lake, the cabin is "on the lake." At least it was a nice view.

We conducted a lot of important business. I'm really pleased with the way the chapter is developing a leadership team rather than one or two people doing all the work.

Maybe some day we'll get that boat ride. Although the next meeting is going to be at a different place, so it seems unlikely for September.

In other news: I got my quota of editing done and spent a fair amount of time doing prep for the meeting.

See Almost a Boat Ride

Loda Lake- Spirit of the Woods Hike- June

It was a multi-purpose hike day for National Trails Day- the first Saturday in June!

The Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA started with a 3.2-mile hike, some of which was on the NCT, and some was on a spur.

The spur took us to Loda Lake.

Some of you will know that Loda Lake is a wildflower sanctuary- the only one in the entire National Forest system in the country.

We were treated to a tour by the Forest Service Botanist, Carolyn Henne. This isn't a great picture, but it does show us looking at plants beside the trail while she talks about them.

I always learn things when I'm there because the plants are always in slightly different stages of their life cycles.

One of the best pictures of the day is poison sumac. You can see the bundles of leaves and the unripe berries forming on separate stems.

The Prairie Smoke is looking great. They have planted a variety of native plants in a sort of showcase garden.

Also blooming in that garden was a lot of Hairy Beardtongue, Penstemon hirsutus. I believe the butterfly is a Pipestone Swallowtail.

Best personal find of the day was some round-leaved sundew, a carniverous plant. There were also pitcher plants on site.

After that tour, we all went to Pete and Julie's cottage where they fixed burgers and brats, and we all chipped in with a potluck. This was followed by our annual meeting.

I saw lots more plants, but these are the best pictures. Long day, but all great.

Miles walked in 2026: 180.3
NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 59.8

NCT in Newaygo County 1.8 miles. Birch Grove Trail 1.4 miles, Loda Lake 1.7 miles

See Practically Perfect in Every Way

Spirit of the Woods Hike- May 2026

The group photo hasn't been posted yet for me to grab, but there were about 15 people and 5 dogs who hiked today. We traveled farther than usual, going north to where the Manistee River crosses US 131. The trail goes beneath the bridge.

The hike actually went the other direction, going north (trail west) along the high bluff beside the river.

We finally had another really nice day! We were all ready for this.

And some of the wildflowers were opening. Wood anemone.

Trout lily.

And some Carolina spring beauty.

Finally, just some cute little orange mushrooms on the green moss.

What with travel time, going out to eat, and the hike itself, this is really all I did today.

Miles hiked in 2026: 158.4
Hike 100 Challenge: 51.6

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI. US 131 Roadside rest north 3 miles and back. 6.0 miles

See SPW Hike- April 2026

Earth Day Event in Ludington

For years, the AFFEW group (A Few Friends for the Environment of the World) has been hosting an Earth Day event in Ludington. Various groups with outdoor/environmental themes have booths, there are a few vendors, and there are environmental programs all day. I've manned a booth about the North Country Trail there quite a few times, but not recently. I see that I've never blogged about doing so, although it doesn't seem like THAT long ago since I attended.

Anyway, our Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA had a booth today which I staffed. Not too interesting without me or someone standing there, but this is proof of a presence. I talked to quite a lot of people and we had 5 that signed up to receive notices about hikes. Handed out a pile of maps.

I was delighted to discover that I was next to Jim McGrath. He's has built a well-known reptile and amphibian educational program in Michigan. In fact, our chapter had him come to a couple of National Trails Day events quite a few years ago.

His animals are always healthy, clean and alert. Look at this attentive bullfrog!

He says one reason his animals are so active and interesting is because he always feeds them at these events, and they have come to associate times when the air is full of the scent of humans with being fed, so they keep their eyes open. Literally.

And speaking of that...as well as giving the frogs worms, he fed the hognose snake at the end of the day. The kids sure paid attention as the snake ate a toad!

He also had a spotted turtle. This is cool. I've never seen one in the wild. They are a little south from me.

There were also crafts for kids, and that was busy all day.

The Petunia Parade (the group that plants and maintains all the petunias I've showed you in Ludington) had a booth, and these fun flowers to pose with.

This took all day, and then I got groceries and came home. And that's enough for one day!

See Memory of a Special Earth Day

Spirit of the Woods Hike- April 2026

The monthly hike for April had to be tweaked twice! The plan was for Silver Creek Pathway (not NCT), last week, but it's been mostly underwater for weeks. Still underwater this weekend. So we went north from Timber Creek again.

Even with all the changes, we had about 25 people and three dogs show up.

Most of the group did 6 miles or fewer (to 8th St and back). My goal was to do 8 miles again. One other hiker, Eric, wanted to go farther too, so we did! Notice the NCT emblem with black around the central star. That is a really old sticker and it still looks good. I can't even remember when that was changed to have a lighter color. Before 2005 for sure.

So, this is the section I hike ALL THE TIME, and the woods isn't turning green yet, so I struggle to get photos of anything remotely new. But Eric and I went north of 8th St, and then we decided to bushwhack over to the Ward Hills Fire Tower site. That is a favorite place of mine to visit.

Here's the foundation for the keeper's house, again.

And the view west from the top of the hill (toward Scottville and Ludington). The trees are all grown up, and the only times you get any view at all is when there are no leaves.

It warmed up nicely by mid-day, and we ended up in shirtsleeves. The sun at least made the green moss glow.

We did a total of 8.2 miles. I feel pretty good, but didn't get a lot more done this afternoon.

Miles walked in 2026: 137.2
NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 39.1

North Country Trail, Lake Co. Michigan, north 3.5 miles, then bushwhack to Ward Hills Fire Tower site, back to NCT via road, back on NCT to Timber Creek. NCT 6.5 miles, other 1.7 miles. Overall elevation range 360 feet.

See Eight Miles for Spring